


valentine

by aelescribe



Category: Percy Jackson and the Olympians - Rick Riordan, The Heroes of Olympus - Rick Riordan
Genre: M/M, Minor Jason Grace/Piper McLean, True Love's Kiss
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-09-09
Updated: 2018-09-09
Packaged: 2019-07-10 07:21:47
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,040
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15944513
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/aelescribe/pseuds/aelescribe
Summary: Jason’s eyes did not flutter. He didn’t wake up.Nico felt sick. Then he felt elation--then even sicker at the elation he was feeling.Cupid was probably laughing right now.





	valentine

Jason’s baby blues were never to open again.

 _If love be blind, it best befits the dark,_ he quoted, and somehow through all the fog Nico could see Cupid’s menacing grin. _If you intend to keep him there, I will only oblige._

Jason’s brow furrowed, and he glanced at Nico with concern. “Nico…? What is he talking about?” He must have noticed how much Nico was shaking, how pale he was, how he kept avoiding Jason’s glance and curling inward to surround himself with bony warriors.

“I—“ he began. But Nico didn’t know where to start. The first day he set foot in Camp Jupiter? When that blue first set eyes on him, enraptured him, or how the ice melted over many careful months of bonding and friendship, or how it shattered, cold, thanks to the delicate hammer of Hera?

_Will you hide among the dead, as you always do?_

Yes. Nico did. He raised a wall of black stone and marrow. Nico was afraid. Nico was still white and red from Tartarus. Nico still couldn’t look anyone in the eye, something he had trouble with even when he knew Jason.

He ran from Annabeth’s questions at Camp Half-Blood and from Reyna’s concerns at Camp Jupiter. All the way to the underworld. Until he tripped—fell—slipped—

“Nico, hold on,” Jason insisted, breaking through all his defenses to grip his arms, firm but gentle. He waited before laying hands on him, waited for Nico to nod permission. That knowing, caring Jason was still there after all this time. The son of Hades internally wept. “I won’t let this guy keep hurting you. Just stay back—okay? I’ll get us out of here.”

Nico bit into his wrist, barely breathing. He trusted Jason. Believed in him. Cared for him. He finally unscrewed his hand from his teeth to reply and.

Wind rushed toward them and cut out all other sound. Jason’s lips moved silently, then fell open in a gasp. His chest surged forward and met Nico’s face. The tip of a razor thin arrow scratched his cheek, glittered beneath his eyeline, and then disappeared.

Jason wheezed for air, clambering to stand, leaning against Nico for support. “Jason?” he whispered. He let his sword clatter to the ground and caught him. “Jason! You—“

There’s no wound on his chest where the arrow pierced him. But it looks like he’s dying, it feels like he’s dying.

“Oh gods, gods, oh _gods_ —“

His eyes began to slide shut. He struggled so hard to stay awake, gripping Nico’s hand tightly, trying to say his name.

“Jason, I—this is all my fault, I’m so sorry—“

And he fell into a deep sleep.

 _He’ll only Awaken with the truth,_ whispered Cupid. Diocletian’s scepter was tossed at Nico’s feet, dim and useless. _The truth of love_.

Nico dragged Jason back to the Argo II, Cupid’s laugh still ringing in his ears. He was near hyperventilating when he emerged from the shadows, struggling to support Jason’s weight, but not willing to let him go. He carefully set him on the deck and everyone clamored. Nico clutched the scepter tightly in hand, his only source of stability.

Everyone was talking all at once, checking Jason’s pulse, making sure he was breathing, staring at Nico with wide, mistrustful eyes--

Hazel took his hands over the scepter and instructed, “Breathe, Nico. Breathe. It’s okay.” No, it’s not, Hazel. It is so far from _okay_. Jason’s been cursed, Jason’s been hurt, and all because Nico was too afraid to face up to his feelings. Why should Jason be punished for that?

And, even deeper, Nico wanted to know why _he_ should be punished, too.

He doesn’t recognize his own voice, “Cupid said that only the truth of love would wake Jason up,” he said, breath hitching over _love_ and _Jason_. Of course.

All eyes on deck flitted to Piper. “So… maybe like, true love’s kiss?” she suggested quietly, rubbing the inside of her elbow uncomfortably.

“Maybe,” Frank frowned. “But why did Cupid give you Diocletian’s scepter _and_ curse Jason? Wouldn’t it be more productive for him to withhold it until you woke Jason up, as some kind of test?”

Nico knew that being gifted the scepter was a test. Because Cupid knew he could never steel himself to use it, could hardly rest knowing that Jason’s consciousness is ebbing away through Nico’s own fault. But he couldn’t say this to Frank, so he just gave a slow, sad shake of his head. “I don’t know. The gods--they usually have their reasons for stuff like this. Maybe we have to prove something. Maybe Jason has to prove something. It could be to solidify his loyalties between the camps. Where his heart lies, so to speak.”

Everyone was looking at him, now. When Nico got nervous, he tended to ramble. So he kept talking and wringing his hands over the scepter until his anxiety won out and faded his voice back to nothing. Hazel was looking at him out of the corner of her eye and he tried not to look back. She could undo him with a single glance.

“That makes a lot of sense,” Piper nodded, eyes unreadable. Maybe she was thinking of Reyna as Jason’s tie to Camp Jupiter. She wouldn’t be far off--but Nico was afraid his heart was too loudly beating with the real answer otherwise. Silence stretched. Jason was still lying cold on the deck. They were running out of time. “... We have nothing to lose.”

She knelt down beside Jason, taking a deep breath to steady herself. Leo gave her an encouraging pat on the shoulder. She carefully pressed her lips to Jason’s, taking one of his hands in hers for good measure.

Jason’s eyes did not flutter. He didn’t wake up.

Nico felt sick. Then he felt elation--then even sicker at the elation he was feeling. Cupid was probably laughing right now. He had him right where he wanted him. He felt like he was back in the bronze jar, paralyzed, breathless, dead to the world.

He was, until Hazel’s insistent shouts brought him back. At some point, he’d begun to sway, and Hazel caught him. Her face was marred with concern.

“Sorry,” he whispered. “I… I don’t feel good.”

“Did Cupid hurt you, too?” she asked softly.

 _More than you know_ , he wanted to scream. But he could only nod.

So they took Nico and Jason both to the infirmary, laying Jason upon a spare cot with several blankets. Nico would keep an eye on him while he rested. He could only find solace in the slow rise and fall of the mound of blankets over his chest. Nico imagined his skin must be cold, but he was too afraid to touch and feel for himself.

The night passed with little event. Nico worried back and forth, pacing the room up and down until he was sure he’d engraved a path in the wood floor. Jason’s breaths were slow but steady, and Nico found himself drawn to the rhythmic rise and fall of his chest. The regal curve of his jaw. His long, light eyelashes. He spent hours willing them to flutter and part, revealing the beautiful blue that Nico became happily accustomed to.

He could almost hear Cupid ticking the seconds down until Nico’s guilt and fear wore each other down until he was nothing, until he was numb and had nothing left to lose. Nothing left to do but _try_ , because it didn’t matter, it’s not like he could wake Jason up anyway.

Because he didn’t love him. Jason wasn’t Nico’s one true love and he sure wasn’t Jason’s one true _whatever_.

So Nico steadied himself. He locked the door, just to be safe, and knelt at Jason’s bedside. He spent some more time stalling, holding Jason’s hand in his own as Piper did earlier, gently trailing his worn cuticles and his calloused palm. His breath mingled with Jason’s faint one. His heart thudded, much too loud, bursting from his ears.

Just a quick peck. That’s all. _It won’t even work_ he tried to convince himself.

Nico pressed his lips to Jason’s. They’re very soft, he couldn’t help noting. And Jason’s skin was warm beneath him. He thought Jason was cold, earlier, but he must have been wrong. Right now, he’s glowing with heat.

Jason’s eyes fluttered open and he sucked in a breath like he’d been sucker punched. Nico’s lips still hovered there and he was so startled he swallowed Jason’s gasp with another kiss. Desperate to prove himself wrong. Or right. Unsure, until Jason pressed up into him. And then he pressed back. And Jason’s hands found his waist, and Nico’s hands found his hair--

He summoned enough self control to jolt back, eyes wide and panicked. “Jason,” he started. “I. I didn’t--” Didn’t mean to? No, Nico very much meant to kiss him. Didn’t expect it to work? No. Nico did, underneath all his denial against Cupid’s taunts. He hated that the god was so confident; hated that he knew, understood Nico, knew _right_ where to hit him. In his weakness, in Jason’s insecurity. The arrow may as well have pierced Nico’s own heart. Especially with the way Jason’s looking at him, blue so clear, for the first time.

Jason grasped Nico’s face, thumbs brushing his lashes, the dark circles under his eyes. “Nico.” He said his name for the first time, sun breaking through the clouds of doubt in his memory, elation swelling his lungs like a balloon. His voice is hoarse (from kissing or disuse, he doesn’t know), “I remember. I _remember_.”

Nico’s mouth opened and shut at random, his brain short circuiting, English nor Greek nor Italian coming forth from his tongue.

Jason stared at him longer, and longer, and _longer_ , and his affection only seemed to grow, his hands held Nico steadier. “I was… Before you left, I was going to tell you. I was going to ask.”

Nico wanted to speak but only sucked in a breath. He was looking for an answer other than the truth, other than the wavering fact that Cupid _knew_ his feelings for Jason. And, even more horrifyingly, Jason’s feelings for Nico. Concrete.

“I was going to ask,” Jason repeated. “Y. You.” He sat up slow, sluggish, leaning against Nico’s small frame for support. His arms wrapped Nico up and pulled him closer. “Nico. I really...” He nuzzled the crook of his neck and Nico’s breath hitched. He remembers the first time that happened, Jason had him pinned against the door of his villa, all in a rush from war exertion and schoolboy glee. But that seems centuries ago, farther back than the Lotus Hotel.

 _You just got out of a coma. Piper kissed you first, it just took some time to effect. You aren’t thinking straight_.

“Jason, I can’t do this,” Nico whispered. “You aren’t coherent, you’re hurt, you’re--”

“I’m positive.” Jason reached to kiss him again and Nico flinched. “Nico?”

“You can’t. You can’t, can’t, _can’t_ \--”

Nico said this but his lips were getting closer and his  _can'ts_ were getting softer and Jason was just warm and he couldn't deny him. They parted after another fevered round of kisses. Nico's fingers curled into Jason's camp shirt, longing to pull him in again, but knowing better than to try. 

"I didn't think it was going to work."

"But it did."

"But I--we--just  _can't_ \--"

"Can't what?" Jason stared at him. Part of him still woozy from his coma, Nico suspected, and part shock from Nico, his touch of lips and hands. "You saved me. We can't what?  _Love_?" Nico winced at the words. "Nico, we're--you can--" Jason got his arms around him again and breathed for the both of them. "I can hear your heartbeat. Always. Everywhere. And I  _feel_ it--"

Jason's hand palmed the expanse of Nico's chest, grasping for his heart through his shirt. Ever gentle, Jason was, persistent. He felt and loved and gave Nico the courage to feel and love. No matter how much Nico lied to himself about love he never could. Never would.

 _Never should_.

"I feel yours too," Nico said instead, simply because it was true. 

**Author's Note:**

> this was sitting in my drafts from jasico week stuff and i wanted to polish it up a bit. basically im not SAYING that hera erased jasons memory and his bisexual identity as a result, and that he was in love with nico...... but uhhh thats exactly what im saying its facts!
> 
> gonna crank out some more w these boys very soon........ gotta get back to main course jasico ;;))))
> 
> also some lovely art for the fic from my good friend here!!! ---> https://artkafe.tumblr.com/post/177436539012/its-been-a-productive-jasico-week


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